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In The Clear? Howard Stern's Former Clear Channel Affiliates A Year Later
by Michael Parrish
February 25, 2005
February 25 is the anniversary of Clear Channel unceremoniously suspending Howard Stern from all six of its stations that carried the syndicated morning program. It wouldn't be until April 8 that the suspension became a permanent dismissal, leaving WBGG/Miami, KIOZ/San Diego, WXDX/Pittsburgh, WTKS/Orlando, WNVE/Rochester and WTFX/Louisville in morning limbo.
For each of these stations, it's been a long year since the Fall 2003 Arbitron ratings period, the last full book with Stern on their airwaves. Go pull the breakouts for the final month of Arbitron's Winter 2004 ratings period and you can see what it looks like to rip the foundation away from a radio station one month prior to the all-important Spring book. And even though Stern's exit came down in February, the stations had to wait to put on a new morning show until the suspension was made final in April.
With the recently released Fall 2004 book, mainstream press outlets picked up on the devastation felt by Stern's former Clear Channel outlets. Stern had a grand time reading an article by CNN/Money staff writer Krysten Crawford that pointed out each station's Persons 12+ morning drive ratings drop. Classic Rock WBGG slid from fourth to fifteenth. Active Rock KIOZ fell to twentieth from fifth. Talk WTKS dropped from second to eighth. Active Rock WNVE went from sixth to fourteenth. Active Rock WTFX slipped from third to ninth and Modern Rock WXDX was singled out for its drop from third to eleventh. Looking deeper beyond the 12+ numbers at the core demos and overall health of each station reveals a picture that isn't as bleak as the one painted by Crawford.
WNVE (The Nerve) is really the only station that has been completely decimated by Stern's departure. Once #1 Persons 18-34 in morning drive, the station is now #11. Overall, The Nerve dropped from eighth to sixteenth Persons 12+, from sixth to thirteenth Persons 18-34 and from eighth to sixteenth Persons 25-54. Men 18-34 dropped from first to eleventh, while Men 25-54 dropped from third to fourteenth. The morning drive drops are even worse. To top off the destruction, Infinity returned Stern to the market on crosstown competitor WZNE (The Zone) and he promptly picked up where he left off propelling The Zone to a #1 18-34 finish.
Stern's two former affiliates in Florida - WBGG and WTKS - have both stumbled, but haven't fallen. While WBGG slid from fourth to fifteenth in morning drive, the overall numbers for the station remain virtually the same from Fall 2003 to Fall 2004, holding steady at a 2.4 Persons 12+, slipping 2.9 to 2.2 Persons 18-34 and 3.9 to 3.5 Persons 25-54. Meanwhile, WTKS did drop from second to eighth in morning drive without Stern, but the rest of the station's dayparts remained untouched. Middays slipped a little due to the loss of Stern carrying over into the daypart, but afternoon drive went up and nights held steady for the station.
The station that has fared best without Stern is WTFX (The Fox), which remains Louisville's top Rock station and still has solid 18-34 numbers. "Our upper demo was hit when Stern left," said Clear Channel Louisville Director of Rock Programming Michael Lee, explaining that the goal of the station shifted to "focus on the core 18-34 and super serve them with music, personality and promotions."
One-way WTFX focused came once Stern's departure was confirmed. The station launched The Backstage Morning Show, which had national bands fill in during morning drive for a week at a time. Metallica, Linkin Park, Disturbed, 3 Doors Down, Kid Rock, and Dimebag Darrell, among others filled the void until August 15 when The Morning Movement with Tony & Dwight were hired as Stern's permanent replacement.
"The response we got to it was amazing," said Lee. "I only expected to kick off the Spring book with the promotion and it ended up running for two months, which helped us bridge over from Stern and get people's minds off his show."
Lee says it was a team effort to keep WTFX rolling. "The jocks really believed what we were doing and executed the game plan well," asserts Lee. "We kept the same game plan with the music and focused on 20-29 year-old males. There was no way we could keep both ends. We had to choose. Since we have a Classic Rock sister station, WQMF, we decided it would be best for us to focus on the lower end and for them to hit the 25-54s."
A lot of Stern's listenership landed at WQMF with Bob & Tom. So while the Stern fans were departing one Clear Channel outlet, they were being kept within the company by landing at another. "We had the luxury of the Classic Rock station picking up the upper end," says Lee. "It was a battle, but after all is said and done, we're going to come out as well as anybody. We have a great stick, great personalities and The Fox has been here going on twelve years, and we have very a strong brand in the market."
Lee says one key in recovering post-Stern is "we never made Howard the focus of the radio station. Stern was a morning show that was part of the station, but we really promoted other dayparts throughout his show and as soon as he was off, we never mentioned him again. It was about the station, the ties to the community and branding the station as a lifestyle oriented Rock station. He was a great part of the station, but we wanted to make sure it was The Fox they were listening to, remembering and writing down."
In Pittsburgh, WXDX (The X) was in a similar position, but Stern's departure hit them a little harder than at WTFX. It was swift and cut deep. By the Summer 2004 book, morning drive on The X had dropped from third place to fifteenth for Persons 12+ and from second to seventeenth Persons 25-54. And while the Persons 18-34 numbers sunk from 15.3 to 6.1, the station remained Top Five in the demo. Overall, the station ranked fourth Persons 18-34.
"The younger end was far less angry with Howard leaving than the upper demo was," says WDVE-WXDX OM John Moschitta. "If you are a 40-year old guy that was a P3 for The X anyway, why would you still listen? Whereas the 25-year-old guy was kind of pissed off, they liked Howard, but still liked the station. There is a little more of a forgiveness factor."
WXDX had to deal with Stern returning to the market in July when Infinity blew up CHR WBZZ (B937), replaced it with "93.7 K-Rock" and positioned the station between WXDX and sister station Heritage Rock WDVE. But The X made a pre-emptive strike by moving longtime afternoon drive personality Alan Cox to mornings just a week ahead of Stern's return.
"Alan has some heritage in the market and has been here over five years," says Moschitta. "With the core of The X audience, there is a comfort factor and they know what to expect from him. It seemed to us like an obvious play to move him to morning drive, rather than start over with something that was untested and untried in Pittsburgh. We knew he had the talent, intelligence and humor to do what we needed in morning drive."
The Fall 2004 book was the first full head-to-head battle between Stern, Cox, and the DVE Morning Show. Stern easily dominated Persons 18-34, but ranked behind WDVE Persons 12+ and Persons 25-54. Moschitta says The Alan Cox Show held its own. "With any new morning show, there is a growth process involved," he says. "Now throw in the other x-factor that Alan is replacing Howard and, oh yeah, Howard is back in the market, it makes it doubly tough. Take away that stuff and he is doing what a new morning should be doing. He's starting to grow and gain an audience. He's getting comfortable and getting his feet wet. I'm pleased with it. We're eight months in and he is in a solid position and growing as he goes along."
While WXDX has lost a little cume since Stern's exit, it has gained in other dayparts, now ranking #1 Persons 18-34 in middays, which never happened when they had Stern. K-Rock drops from an 18.1 Persons 18-34 to a 9.5 in middays, while The X pops up from 8.2 to a 10.4. So while The X took a morning hit, the rest of its dayparts have been growing. This phenomenon is also happening in San Diego at Stern's former home in Southern California, KIOZ, according to Clear Channel RVP/Programming Jim Richards.
"Rock 1053 was always a really good hard Rock station that had a really good morning show," contends Richards. "It wasn't just that we were the Howard Stern station and everybody bailed. We're doing really well in middays, afternoons and evenings."
The ratings back up Richards' assessment. Looking at Rock 1053's core 18-34 demo, the station is up in all dayparts outside of morning drive since Stern's departure. While Stern's replacement, The Mikey Show, has yet to take hold, Richards feels it is just a waiting game. "Mikey's done an amazing job," he says. "We believe once Howard leaves terrestrial radio, that's where our biggest growth opportunity comes for the Mikey Show. He's doing well now, but we expect it to get that much better in January 2006."
Stern returned to the market via Infinity's KPLN (The Planet), bringing the station great morning numbers, but the rest of the station has not been helped by the addition of Stern, barely registering a blip in Arbitron numbers. "Howard messed up Planet," claims Richards. "Planet was always a music station, but now they have all the Howard fans coming in during the morning and pushing out all the music fans."
At first glance, yes, Clear Channel's six stations that dumped The Howard Stern Show have suffered, but the reality is only one of them has completely been destroyed while the other five have regained traction in various forms.
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